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Winston Shaffer Floresville October 17, 2008 10:58pm

"Basic primitive instinct does that. One does what's good for the tribe and it's survival." Again, what is this instinct you talk about? Is it like animal instinct that kills off the weak? Any pack or tribe will survive better when it gets rid of its weak. Why build hospital for pre-mature babies? The money spent on them will never equal what they can produce. Or is human life precious/priceless and if so, why would anyone support abortion? Based on your statement, “Clearly the welfare system hasn't worked, “I guess giving to the poor or being compassionate is not a tenet of your atheist belief.

In some of the animal kingdom, the dominant male determines the fate of the pack until a stronger and usually young male dominates. The ex-leader is killed or pushed out to die. So, which primitive instinct does “atheist good’ emulate? Are all man really create equal as defined by “atheist good.” If so, how does that help the tribe survive? Again, you fail to make any reasonable argument that man or beast would rate compassion as good. If man does inherit good that you have yet to describe why do people murder for sport? If hunting is seen as good to one man and yet murder to another which one is good? Does it depend on his upbringing and would it be different if this man had to hunt to live. So, is good relative in your definition and if so, how do you define basic primitive instinct? If good is relative, then why not consider religious teachings which have some similar basic tenets?

As for your prison population discussion, the general population is 1% atheist and 95% deists so I could make the argument they should be the same in prison. But, how would that correlate with the general black population versus the black prison population.

Also, I want to address your claim that Norway is 70% atheist. In a 2006 survey in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, 1,006 inhabitants of Norway answering the question "What do you believe in?" - 29% answered "I believe in a god or deity", 23% answered "I believe in a higher power without being certain of what", 26% answered "I don't believe in God or higher powers", and 22% answered "I am in doubt". Which means “depending on the definition of atheism, Norway thus has between 26 percent and 71 percent atheists.” – The Daily Atheist Blogspot.

Also, Norway is a monolithic society with a population the size of Colorado (approx. 4.7 million) with less than 8% of the population not having Norwegian heritage. Slightly more than 10 percent of Colorado's total population of 4.7 million people is foreign-born. Also, notice Norwegian heritage not European, African, Asian, etc. Nearly 70% of Norway is uninhabitable and covered by mountains, glaciers, moors, and rivers. Also, Norway is the third largest oil exporter. When you have that much money, you can be a little more atheist. So, comparing Norway to the US is like comparing an apple to orange trees.

As for the Founding Fathers being Deists is moot, is quite substantial considering you said they were atheist. Deists believe in a Supreme Being and how they interact with that being may or may not be as a Christian but it is not an Atheist. However, you contend that religion specifically Christianity is … the reason the world is so bad and if we just got rid of religion we would all be sharing bubble baths, living in a loving manner and being peaceful and rational with no disagreements because our basic primitive instinct if set free would make this happen.

I tell you what Danny go down and spend a few hours with elementary students who don’t have a clue about God and his so called “lost soul” worshipers and there bias. Guess what? There are bullies and stealing and cheating and lying and envy and just all those basic instincts which you claim are good. You don’t like that analogy. Go to remote villages of South America without religions and guess what; they still kill each and steal from each other and have all those other basic “atheist good’ attributes. Guess what I really didn’t do my research on this last paragraph but since you like to make up stuff I thought I would too. Do you think that is good or evil? Of course, according to you, “Right and wrong can exist without good and evil, which are the two ideals which I stated don't exist.” So, what exactly is your point; basic primitive instinct is good or it knows right?

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